In the semiconductor industry and other areas of technology, there is a demand for analyzing and/or modifying objects embedded in a volume of a material-specimen such as embedded semiconductor structures or lead layers in a semiconductor element. For example, an electron microscope can be used for analyzing in order to generate an image of the object of interest. As the object of interest is embedded in the material-specimen, the object's surface is exposed by removing a material-volume from the material-specimen before. Background information on such methods of processing may be obtained from, for example, chapter 6.10. of the book “High Resolution Focused Ion Beams: FIB and Its Applications” by Jon Orloff and Mark Utlaut, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
The material-volume may be removed precisely by ion beam etching using an ion beam. As the removing of material by ion beam etching is a relatively slow process, at least a portion of the material-volume may also be removed by laser beam processing or by other mechanical or chemical methods. Using laser beam processing and other viable methods, more material-volume per unit time can be removed compared to ion beam etching. However, a surface region having a desired shape can be generated much more precisely by removing material of the material-specimen using ion beam etching than by using laser beam processing and other methods.
It is often desirable to remove material from the material-specimen so that a surface region of the material-specimen is generated which has a substantially smooth shape, i.e. a small roughness.